Florya Garden

Description

Eremya Çelebi describes the gardens as follows: The sultan had a beautiful garden called Filurya. In August, on the eve of the Feast of the Virgin Mary, the indigenous Greek and Armenian people of the city would visit it with their wives (XVII. asırda İstanbul, 3-4). According to Sarraf Hovannesyan, There was a village known as Saint Stephen’s, by which he meant Yeşilkoy, a little further on from which was Kalatarya, which he visited because of the Greek church and sacred spring there. He speaks briefly of Florya: Near there was the former palace of the sultans with its gardens and sweet water known as Filoriye Bahçesi. This garden does not appear in Evliya Çelebi’s account.

The text for this entry is adapted from Nurhan Atasoy, Garden for the Sultan, 273.